Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas probed Friday the volatile situation in the Palestinian territories caused by escalating militants-Israel conflicts.

The two leaders held the discussions during their telephone conversation, reported Egypt's official MENA news agency.

President Mubarak telephoned Abu Mazen (Abbas) on Friday as part of Egypt's efforts to contain the escalations in the Palestinian territories, presidential spokesman ambassador Suleiman Awwad was quoted as saying.

The two sides also talked about a recent visit by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to Cairo on security arrangements on the Gaza-Egypt border, added Awwad.

Israel had intensified air strikes in the Gaza Strip after five Israelis were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in the northern Israeli town of Hadera on Wednesday.

Majid Natat, a member of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed offshoot of the mainstream Fatah movement led by Abbas, was killed on Friday as a missile fired by Israeli airplanes hit his car in northern Gaza.

The attack came one day after at least seven Palestinians were killed and nine others wounded in an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza, a senior Islamic Jihad militant among the killed.

Source: Xinhua